Sophie Angus
Sophie Angus is a Canadian swimmer who competes internationally for Canada. She won a bronze medal at the 2023 [World Aquatics Championships|2023 World Championships] swimming the breaststroke leg in the women's Swimming at the [2023 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay|4×100 m medley].
Career
Raised in Connecticut, Angus was the number 3 ranked graduating senior in high school in the state and ranked number 35 overall by collegeswimming.com. Angus remains the Connecticut record holder in the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events. As a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she was eligible to attend both countries' Olympic trials for the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the Canadian trials, she placed seventeenth in the 100 m breastroke, which gave her the qualifier time to participate in the 2016 [United States Olympic trials |2016 United States Olympic trials]. She appeared at the American trials as well, but did not make the team. Angus committed permanently to the Canadian national team and made the finals at the 2017 Canadian Swimming Trials.Angus first represented Canada at the 2018 [FINA World Swimming Championships |2018 World Swimming Championships], where she finished in 26th place in the heats of the 100 m breaststroke. The following year, Angus made the Canadian team for the 2019 Summer Universiade, winning a bronze medal after swimming in the heats of the 4×100 m medley relay.
Angus contemplated retiring from competitive swimming in March 2022, but ultimately opted to continue, later citing her dreams of winning a World medal and qualifying to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics. At the Canadian trials in April, she won the 100 m breaststroke gold with a personal best time of 1:07.60, which she said "shocked" her. This qualified Angus for her first World Aquatics Championships, appearing at the 2022 edition in Budapest and finishing 24th in the heats of the Swimming at the [2022 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 100 metre breaststroke|100 m breaststroke]. She was also part of Canada's team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Angus swam the breaststroke leg in the heats of the Swimming at the [2022 Commonwealth Games – Mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay|4×100 m mixed medley]. She was replaced by James Dergousoff in the final, but received a silver medal after the team finished second there. She won a second silver as part of the women's Swimming at the 2022 [Commonwealth Games – Women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay|4×100 m medley] team, again assigned the breaststroke leg. Angus called the summer's results "something I never could have dreamed of."
At the 2023 Canadian trials, Angus won the 100 m breaststroke for the second consecutive year. At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships she did not advance out of the heats in either the Swimming at the 2023 [World Aquatics Championships – Women's 50 metre breaststroke|50 m] or 100 m breaststroke, but won a bronze medal swimming the breaststroke leg for the Canadian team in the women's 4×100 m medley. Angus posted times of 1:06.30 in the heats and 1:06.21 in the relay final, both considered "surprise" results based on past performances. Her 1:06:21 was the second-best breaststroke split for a Canadian woman since Annamay Pierse's Canadian record performance of 1:05.74 in July 2009. Speaking afterward, Angus said the medal had fulfilled one of her dreams, and cited her teammates as "the ones that keep pushing me. I'm very glad I made that choice to still be here and looking forward to next year.""
While many of Canada's top swimmers opted to skip the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Angus was named to the team. She reached the final of the Swimming at the [2024 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 100 metre breaststroke|100 m breaststroke], finishing eighth of the eight finalists. Again swimming the breaststroke leg in the 4×100 m medley relay, she won a second consecutive bronze medal in the event.